


Clarity

by Itookyourpen



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Anglo-Saxon, Fate & Destiny, Forbidden Love, Historical References, Its gonna get bumpy as we go, Original Character(s), Slow Burn, Time Travel, Vikings, so buckle up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:35:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24466549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Itookyourpen/pseuds/Itookyourpen
Summary: Trea is an indomitable hero chosen by a timeless order to restore balance in the universe - she just doesn’t know it.Until she meets mysterious time traveler Alex, sworn to uphold and protect the timeline.Together, they learn the abilities of their miraculous and powers of the rabbit and yale Kwami. They also discover new feelings in themselves.Trea’s dark existence is pierced by Alex’s bright personality and for the first time she finds herself hoping for a future. Meanwhile Alex, drawn to his partner's tenacity, is torn between his burgeoning feelings and a promise made in his own time.When a new miraculous villain emerges - twisting reality and bringing all early-middle-age England under its control - Alex and Trea realise the true battle is closer than they ever imagined.And are they willing to pay the price to protect the future?Note: the Yale kwami is an original idea based on the creature from early middle age Anglo Saxon mythology. More info to come in future chapters.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5
Collections: May 2020 - Past Holders





	Clarity

The first rays of sunlight broke through gaps between the hay rafters with piercing clarity, blinding Trea’s eyes. It would have woken her, except the young woman had already been awake for hours, watching the shadows inside her hut fade into muted pre-dawn tones of blue and grey. 

_Another day._

Work her lands, protect the livestock, prepare her evening meal and collapse in bed. Trea turned to look at the burnt-out hearth. Its fire had long since cooled, leaving charred wood and blackened ash. The same dream had woken her in the early hours again: Icy sheets of rain. Wet strands of black hair plastered against fair skin. Sweet blue eyes, closed. Forever. 

She shuddered, not from the cold. 

Life it seemed, would not allow her to escape life’s cruelty even in sleep.

At least the Danes wouldn’t be likely to strike today. They rarely attacked this close to winter when food was scarce. In warmer months, their swords and bloodlust were a persistent threat. In a lucky season, they might just steal livestock. But more commonly they razed villages to ash and left bastard children in the bellies of women not fast enough to run to the darkness of the forest. 

Trea dragged her feet from the comfort of her bed, as she had done everyday for the past nineteen years, pulled only by duty to the groaning livestock that kept her alive. 

Life’s callous irony. Trea cared for her livestock, ensuring their safety and survival. And in turn, they enabled her subsistence, by fertilising and tilling the strip farm. As the snows set in and she could no longer support them all, she would slaughter the weakest. Their flesh would fill her belly and give strength to last the winter. Only to start the cycle again as the buds of spring poked through the snows. They worked together in a cruel and inescapable balance. Death for life.

Trea emerged from her wattle and daub hut, stepping from the compacted dirt up into the sunny day. The skies shone a brilliant blue. The berries would be ripening nicely too. Perhaps there would be time to visit the woods and collect some for the evening meal.

She released the animals from their shelter, shooing the precocious brown goat out into the sunshine and preparing the cow for milking. The cow lowed in relief as the milk released with a hiss into a wooden pale. Trea took a large swig and placed the rest inside the house, under an old torn tunic to protect it from flies. 

It might be a good day to go to the village and trade, while it wasn’t raining. But that meant putting up with the nagging of the well-meaning wives around the marketplace.

_Take a husband quickly, before your teeth go rotten; you’ve still got a few good ones.  
She’s not a striking beauty, but she’s got good bones.  
What about the butcher’s lad?  
Two and twenty years, Trea, and not even a roll in the hay? Take that rabbit and use it, girl, before it shrivels and dries up!  
Do you want children or not?_

They meant well, but what was the point? 

The sun had pulled across the mid point of the sky when Trea placed down her winnowing basket. The cow grazed the green grass along the forest’s edge. Harvesting had taken most of the morning. There were several crops left to gather and the grain storage still needed to be rebuilt where the Danes burnt it last summer. Trea could never hope to finish everything before the snow.

Lying down in the field between the rows, moisture from the soil soaked through Trea’s tunic. She stared at the cloudless sky. Its brightness defied the heaviness in her heart. At least with the winter sleet, she could lie in the sheltered darkness of her hut and try not to remember.

After her brother was born, Trea had watched the flesh fall from her mother’s hungry bones. She saw the darkness spread into her mother’s eyes when her sister was born, limp and blue without breath. It was a kindness the angel-faced girl died, Trea thought. She was spared the pain of existence. 

“Life is grueling but we are not weak, even in the face of famine and sickness, my little fawn,” her mother’s voice echoed faintly through her memory. “Get up and go again. Do what needs to be done.”

Even in the pit of despair, her mother had fought for life. 

_Mama's hope was misguided. Yet, here I am, still going. Would it ever be more than just survival?_

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to the brave souls who listened and helped form my incoherent ramblings and beta-ed to help shape this story.  
> [a_popcorn_kernel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_popcorn_kernel/pseuds/a_popcorn_kernel), [Frisian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frisian), [wellsaltedlady](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wellsaltedlady), edenairafyd, elysiantree & others <3
> 
> Shout out to the [Miraculous Fanworks Discord Server ](https://discord.gg/PjNZgsf).  
> This work was inspired by the May 2020 Past Holders Prompt.


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